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Rainbow lover that hates spreading Zippy on toast

It was with no small degree of bewilderment that I read about PI Global’s new packaging for Marmite (DW 17 October), which features a prominent image of Rainbow’s Zippy. Why is he there? PI Global claims that it was ‘designed to move the product further into the adult arena’. I still don’t get it.

I was one of the thousands of kids in the 1970s who loved watching the antics of Zippy, Bungle et al. However, seeing his face inexplicably leering from the label of one of my favourite brands just makes me irritated.

As Marmite’s advertising campaign has so cleverly reiterated over the years, ‘You either love it or you hate it.’ And it’s true.

Will Zippy be featuring in Marmite’s new advertising campaign? At least then there would be some point to him. However, there are some brands with packaging that works so well it is best left alone (or changed only at the most evolutionary level). I think Marmite is one of those brands.